PresidentDonald Trump's televised tantrum during hisApril 26 interview with "60 Minutes" on CBS News– which aired a day afterhe was rushed from an event after it was crashed by a gunman– revealed the obvious fear he still holdsabout the Epstein files.
Thosemore than 6 million documentspotentially detail the life and crimes of his former friend, the now-deadregistered sex offender Jeffrey Epstein.
I think we'll see more of that fear and more tantrums from Trump as the push for transparency with the Epstein files intensifies, sinceonly about half of them have been released.
Katie Phang, a former prosecutor who now works as an independent journalist,sued the Department of Justice on April 27, asking a federal judge to appoint a special master to review and release more Epstein files.
That lawsuit landed just four days after the DOJ's own inspector generalinformed several senatorsthat it hadlaunched an audit to see if the departmenthad complied with a law requiring the release of the Epstein files.
In his "60 Minutes" interview, Trumplashed out at CBS News correspondent Norah O'Donnellwhen she read part of the "manifesto" of Cole Allen,the California man charged with gun crimes and attempting to assassinate Trumpafter allegedly crashing through securityat the White House Correspondents' Association dinner on April 25.
Here's the line, allegedly written by Allen, that set Trump off: "I am no longer willing to permit a pedophile, a rapist, and a traitor to coat my hands with his crimes."
Trump had already told O'Donnell that he didn't know if he was the target of the violence on April 25. But he was sure that line was about him, and he called O'Donnell "horrible" and "a disgrace" for reading it.
In his anger, Trump blurted out, "I was totally exonerated," and then mentioned Epstein by name.
Two curious things about that.Trump is mentioned multiple timesin the Epstein files,but not in any way that would exonerate himof anything. And O'Donnell never mentioned the Epstein files or Trump's relationship with Epstein.
But it was clearly on his mind. And he's not alone. Plenty of people are still thinking and talking about the Epstein files.
Phang, a former cable news anchor who now hosts a YouTube show,used that platform on April 27to explain why she is suing acting Attorney General Todd Blanche in federal court in Washington, DC.
She accused Blanche and the DOJ of "violating the law on the daily and actively seeking to hide the truth from the American people about the greatest, most egregious criminal conspiracy in the trafficking of children that has existed in the history of America."
Congresspassed the Epstein Files Transparency Act in November, with just one Republican in the House voting against it. Trump, who had lobbied feverishly against that legislation,then grudgingly signed it into law.
Phang seems to be on very solid ground in claiming that the DOJ has not followed that law. The two House members who sponsored that legislation – Republican Thomas Massie of Kentucky and Democrat Ro Khanna of California –told me two weeks agothat they think the DOJ is not complying with the law.
